Adithyaa Anand came across a Rubik’s Cube when he was looking to pass time during his Class X summer holidays. “My brother and I went for a walk and he bought one from a store in our locality,” he remembers. The Cube went on to gain him international acclaim. The 20-year-old has won a silver medal at the Asian Rubik’s Cube Championship 2018, held between August 17 and 19 in Taiwan. He now holds the 12th position in the world for the unique way of solving the Rubik’s Cube — he uses his feet for the purpose.
Currently pursuing a degree in electronics and instrumentation engineering, Adithyaa says that he tried a hand, rather, feet, at the game with no big ambitions. “My father’s friend visited us one day and saw the Rubik’s Cube lying around. He then introduced me to his son who was into it,” he says. Adithyaa was instantly hooked. “I learned to solve it within four days,” he says.
From then on, he started attending competitions held by the World Cube Association. “The Rubik’s Cube comes in various shapes, and can be solved in various ways,” he says. “It can be solved using two or one hand, or feet. I chose to do so with my feet,” he adds. The idea struck him when he saw a YouTube video of a speed cuber doing this. “I realised I was far better at solving the Rubik’s Cube with my feet than I was with my hands.”
Adithyaa’s winning streak began in a competition held at the Vellore Institute of Technology in 2014. “I set a record for the second fastest in India,” he says, adding, “I’ve been holding the National title for four years now and have beaten my own record seven times.”
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At the Asian Championship, in which there were 400 participants from 20 countries, Adithyaa solved the cube at an average speed of 32.45 seconds.
Adithyaa documents his feat on his YouTube channel. In one video, he solves the Cube in 25.26 seconds: by the time we blink twice, he’s through half the puzzle.
Speed cubing has earned him friends across the world. “I will continue doing it, no matter how old I am and keep meeting new people,” he says.